Enhancing recreational activities through planting design in neighborhood parks

Active and passive recreations in neighborhood parks offer various benefits for the life quality. Active and passive recreation preferences depend on various demographic factors, including the user's economic levels. Also, environmental factors are efficient in recreation preferences. Despite extensive studies, there is a scant body of research on the relationship between desirable recreation and vegetation design in areas with different income levels. This research is concerned with assessing the recreation preferences in the districts with various incomes. Also, it attempts to evaluate the relationship between spatial configuration designs of plants with desirable recreation patterns as its primary goal. For this purpose, we studied the spatial configuration of plants which create different visual accesses for different types of recreation. The current research method is causal-comparative, and through random sampling, 363 people visiting parks in high and low-income Districts in Tehran completed a researcher-made questionnaire. We did Data analysis using Bonferroni's post hoc test using SPSS software. Results show active recreation is desirable in the high-income district, and passive recreation in low-income ones. In addition, landscape preferences for recreation types are different in districts with varying income levels. Therefore, vegetation design can be a factor that enhances active and passive recreation in line with the user's needs.Management implications: The present study aims to improve the quality of parks for recreation. In this research, socio-economic differences in the cities of developing countries have been considered and vegetation design corresponding to the recreational needs of different groups has been investigated. The results showed that open and semi-closed spaces are suitable for what kind of recreation and for high or low-income residents.

Automated summary

Through the research conducted in areas with different income levels, it was found that high-income districts prefer active recreation, while low-income districts prefer passive recreation. There are also differences in landscape preferences for recreation types in districts with varying income levels. The results show that vegetation design can enhance the quality of recreational activities and meet the needs of different residents.